
pernor ml ^hnptth 



H)? 



o 



^ 




To the Visiting Ladies 
of the Convention: 



"A welcome from hearts ever loyal and true — 
A welcome, most hearty, we offer to you. . 
With hand unto hand, O friends, gathered here. 
Let us honor the Cause that our memories hold dear-" 



O YOU, OUR GUESTS, who 
love and cherish the Old South, 
we give of our hearts' best gifts. 

Just open the pages of this little 
book and con the lives of our Poet, 
Statesmen, Soldier, Hero and Editor. The story of 
their lives will imbue you with Faith, Hope and 
Courage. Then let us more faithfully take for our 
motto, "Lest we forget." 





Page 

I. Greeting . , ^ . . . ^ 1 

II. Albert Pike 6 

III. Augustus Hill Garland - ' - - 10 

IV. Chester Ashley 14 

V. Patrick Ronayne Cleburne ' ' ' 18 

VI. David O. Dodd 20 

VII. St. Johns College 24 

VIII. William E. Woodruff .... 26 

IX. Arsenal 34 

X. Confederate Monument ... 36 



i 



7^ -f-r 




ALBERT PIKE 



mbtrt 0ifte 



Born in Boston, Alassachusetts, December 29, 1809; was 
educated at Harvard, and later for a time engaged in 
teaching. In 183 1 he accompanied an expedition to Santa 
Fe, afterwards exploring the head-waters of the Red and Brazos 
rivers. In December, 1832, he again engaged in teaching near 
Van Buren, Arkansas, but after a short time he removed to 
Little Rock, in this State, and became the editor of a* newspaper 
called the "Arkansas Advocate." In the meantime he entered 
upon the study of law, and was duly admitted to the liar in 
1836. Soon afterwards he took an active part in the compila- 
tion of a code of statute law ostensibly prepared by a commission 
of which he was a verv efficient secretary, which, with but few 
changes, still remains in force in Arkansas. He first became 
widely known by various poems pul:)lished in Blackwood's Maga- 
zine, of Edinburg, Scotland. 

When the Mexican war broke out Pike joined the volunteer 
army, and, in command of a squadron, fought at Beuna \ ista, and 
later received the surrender of Mapini in 1847. He married in 
1834, t6 Miss Mary Ann Hamilton, of Arkansas Post, whom he 
survived for some years. 

During the Civil War Pike was made Indian Commissioner 
of the Confederate government, afterwards Brigadier General. 



After the war he practiced law first in Little Rock, then in 
Memphis, Tennessee, and later in Washington, D. C. In 1867- 
1868 he also edited the Memphis Appeal. During all these years 
Pike devoted all the time that he could spare from his regular 
pursuits to literary work. He published a volume of "Prose 
Sketches and Poems" in 1834, which has since passed through 
several editions, one of them being recent. He also published 
thirty volumes of Masonic works. He died in Washington, D. 
C, April 2. 1891. He was an onmiverous reader, and his linguistic 
attainments were of a high order. A very handsome life-sized 
monument has since been erected to his memory in one of the 
public squares of the National Capital. 

It may be added that Pike had a very successful career at 
the bar, and early in life accpiired a national reputation as an 
able and profound jurist. A man of great and multifarious 
learning and of remarkable social charm, he was attended through 
life bv "troops of friends." Few men of his time and country 
were more widely known. 

He built the beautiful old colonial residence in Little Rock, 
now owned and occupied b}- the children of the late Col. John 
G. Fletcher. 




ALBERT PIKE HOME 







AUGUSTUS HILL GARLAND 



:au3U0tufi^ i^tU (I5arlanti 



Was born near Covington, Tennessee, June ii, 1832. His 
father, who was a planter, removed with his familv to Hemp- 
stead County, Arkansas, in tlie following- year. On growing- up 
to boyhood the son was educated at St. Joseph's College at 
Bardstown, Kentucky, after which he studied law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Washington, Arkansas. Entering on the 
practice of his profession he soon afterwards married Miss 
Sanders, the lovely and accomplished daughter of a highly re- 
spected and esteemed resident of that town. Mr. Garland soon 
rose to distinction at the bar, and in 1856, desiring- a larger field of 
activity, he removed to Little Rock, where he continued the prac- 
tice in a law firm composed of Ebenezer Cummins, a distinguished 
member of the Little Rock bar. and himself. 

LTp to 1861 Mr. Garland showed no predilection for political 
life : but when a State convention was called in that vear to 
consider the very disturbed condition of the countrv then exist- 
ing he was elected as a delegate to that body from Pulaski 
County on a platform opposed to secession. The convention at first 
voted to sustain the union of States, and then adjourned to a 
distant day. During the exciting days that followed so great a 
change of public sentiment ensued that an ordinance of secession 
for which Mr. Garland and all the other union men in the con- 
vention with a single exception, voted, was adopted. 



10 



When the Confederate government was in process of forma- 
tion, Mr. Garland was elected a member of the lower house of 
the Confederate Congress. Ke was later elected to a seat in the 
Confederate Senate, a position that he continued to hold until 
the surrender at Apijomattox ; after which he resumed the prac- 
tice of the law at Little Rock. 

When the State was in the throes of revolt against the carpet- 
bag government in 1874, yir. Garland was elected Governor of 
Arkansas ; a position that he held for the full term of two years. 
He was elected to the United States Senate in 1877, and on the 
accession of Mr. Cleveland to the Presidency he was appointed 
Attorney General of the United States, a place that he occupied 
until the close of Mr. Cleveland's first term of office, at which time 
he resumed the practice of his profession in Washington, D. C, 
without relinquishing his domicile in Arkansas. He died in 
Washington, T""e 26, 1899. 

Mr. Garland was recognized throughout the Union as a pro- 
found jurist and an able statesman. He was highly esteemed and 
beloved for his personal virtues and for his genial social 
qualities. In his honor a county in .Vrkansas lias been named 
after him, and a monument has been erected to his memory ni 
Mt. Holly Cemetery, Little Rock, by his grateful countrymen. 



11 



12 




ASHLEY HOME 



13 



Cl)e0ter ;a0l)lep 



Was born at Amherst. Alassachusetts, on the ist day of 
June, 1 79 1. When he was three years old his parents moved to 
the town of Hudson, in the State of New York. Growing up, 
he was educated at Wilhams College, Massachusetts, where he 
graduated in 1813. Later he studied law in the famous law school 
at Litchfield, Connecticut, established and presided over by 
Judge Reeve. Having taken his degree in the law school, Ashley 
removed to Edwardsville. Illinois, in 1818. At the end of two 
years he removed to St. Louis, then a mere village. When the 
Territory of Arkansas was formed and organized he resolved to 
cast his fortunes with that infant community, still in its swaddling- 
clothes ; and with that view he settled at what is now known as 
Little Rock. Although there was no town there at that time, 
and only two houses but lately improvised in the woods, and built 
of unhewn logs, he saw with prophetic eye that from its pic- 
turesque position and its many other advantages it must be 
selected as the capital of the Territory and of the future State 
of Arkansas. It was on this faith that he and others entered 
portions of the land on which the city now stands. At that 
time the capital of the Territory was at the Post of Arkansas, 
a small village on the Arkansas River fifty or sixty miles below 
Pine Blufl:', and which had been originally settled by the French 
before the cession of Louisiana to the L'nited States. The capital 



was changed to Little Rock by an act of the Territorial Legisla- 
ture in 182 1. 

On the 24th day of July, of that year Ashley married Miss 
Mary W. W. Eliot of St. Genevieve, ^Missouri, who, after many 
years of happy married life, survived him until ^lav, 1865. It 
was in November, 1821, that the town of Little Rock was laid off 
and received the name which it still bears. It is needless to 
say that Ashley was one of its founders, and one of the most 
active and intelligent promoters of its welfare as long as he 
lived. Engaged in the practice of law, he soon rose to the 
highest rank at the bar, and acquired a national reputation as 
a lawyer and a jurist. In 1844 he was elected to the United 
States Senate. On his entry into that distinguished body a 
compliment was paid him that no one else has ever received 
since the foundation of the Federal government. In view of his 
personal merits and his universally recognized abilities, he was 
at once made chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, 
the most important committee within its control. Both before 
and since that time that appointment has been exclusively reserved 
for senators who have had the experience of at least one sena- 
torial term. 

On the expiration of INIr. Ashley's term, he was re-elected 
to the Senate, and was continued in his place as chairman of the 
Judiciarv Committee; thus justifying and approving his first 
and exceptional selection for that high and responsible position. 

While actively engaged in his duties in the Senate chaiuber 
in April, 1848, ]\Ir. Ashley became suddenly and painfully ill, 
and was removed at once to his rooms, where it was discovered 
that he was suffering from a dangerous fever, of which he died 
on the 2yth dav of that month. Congress at once adjourned. 
His funeral was attended bv the President. Judges of the Supreme 



15 



Court, principal officers of State, and a large concourse of 
citizens, when his body with appropriate ceremonies was laid 
to rest in the Congressional Cemetery. It was afterwards re- 
moved, and now reposes in Mt. Holly Cemetery, in the city of 
Little Rock. 

The loss sustained by the death of Mr. Ashley was deeply 
felt by the people of the State and by the country at large. In 
commemoration of his life and public services one of the counties 
of our State and two of the promiment streets of Little Rock 
have received his name as a perpetual and honorable memento of 
his life and public services. 



16 




PATRICK RONAYNE CLEBURNE 



17 



0atr(cfe iaonapne Cleburne 



Was born in the County of Cork, Ireland, AFarch 17, 1828. 
While a student at Trinity College, Dublin, he ran away and 
joined the British army, in which he remained for three years. 
Coming- to America, he settled at Helena, Arkansas, where he 
studied law. was admitted to the bar, and practiced successfully 
until the breaking out of the Civil War, when he joined the 
Confederate army as a private. He almost immediately distin- 
guished himself for military qualities of a very high order, and 
was rapidly promoted. He commanded a brigade at Shiloh. and 
was wounded at Perry ville. In December, 1862, he was commis- 
sioned as major-general. He fought in many of the fierce battles 
of the war, and greatly distinguished himself at Murfreesborough, 
Chickamauga, Ringgold Gap and Missionary Ridge, for which 
services he received the thanks of the Confederate Congress. 

Utterly fearless in danger, he was killed at the battle of 
Franklin, November 30, 1864. He was never married. 

General Cleburne was a man of singular elevation of cliarac- 
ter. and was greatly cherished and admired both in civil and 
military life. Warmhearted, unselfish and chivalrous, in all his 
words and acts he was governed by a conscientious sense of 
duty. The bravest of men, he was also the tenderest, the most 
self-respecting, and the most considerate of the rights and feelings 
of others. Cleburne County in this State was named in his honor. 



18 




DAVID O DODD 



19 



2)atoiti €). 2E>ot>ti 



Who knew what passed in those long years, 

In Arkansas? 
Who cared to mark the falling tears 

Of Arkansas? 
We know of many hero graves. 
Where not one wreath of laurel waves, 
And not one stone a hearing craves, 

In Arkansas. 

Thermopylae is far awa}^ 

From Arkansas, 
And knew of heroes 'ere the day 

Of Arkansas. 
Leonidas did hold the pass 
Till men fell thick as summer grass; 
And one did read that in his class. 

In Arkansas. 

Rome is held full many a sea 

From Arkansas, 
But we read the story of the Three 

In Arkansas. 
And one did read it every day, 
And heard, above his comrades' play, 
Strange voices call him far away 

From Arkansas. 

And when close by his college door, 

In Arkansas, 
He stood, a mighty crowd before, 

In Arkansas, 
He knew his lessons all were done, 
Yet was beneath that Southern sun 
A lesson taught to many a one. 

In Arkansas. 



20 



He did not urge his youth's fair claim, 

On Arkansas. 
Nor still a single comrade's name, 

Oh, Arkansas! 
He would not take a length of days. 
That led through such dishonored ways. 
Better a grave than blighted bays, 

Oh, Arkansas ! 

He looked l)eyond his foemen's ire. 

To Arkansas ; 
He saw his comrades' camping fire. 

In Arkansas. 
He marked each form, unfettered, strong; 
He heard them singing loud and long, 
And halfway ioined into that song. 

Of Arkansas. 

He saw his sisters' eyes grow dim, 

In Arkansas, 
With watching long and late for him. 

In Arkansas. 
He saw his mother at the door. 
Look, knitting, to the river shore — 
He would not see them anv more. 

In Arkansas. 



:arfean0a0' Bop i^ero 

David O. Dodd was arrested by a Federal scouting 
party, December 26, 1864, as lie was leaving- Little Rock, 
and, on being searched, a plan of the fortifications of 
Little Rock and the number and position of the troops 
in and around the city was found upon his person. On 
the 30th day of December, he was tried before a military 
court and condemned as a spy and sentenced to be hung. He 
betraved no fear when his sentence was read to him and, though 
ofifered his life and liberty if he would tell who gave him his 
information, he steadily refused, saying he preferred death to 
dishonor. He wrote a tender letter of farewell to his parents 
and sisters who were refugeeing in Texas in which he told them 
he was not afraid to die and while regretting he could see them 



21 



no more in this life expressed his firm faith in a meeting here- 
after in the better land. After he was upon the scaffold Gen. 
Steele, the Federal General in command oft'ered him his life and 
transportation beyond the Federal lines if he would tell who 
gave him his information but he calmly replied "General, I prefer 
death to dishonor, and I gladly give my life for mv countrv." 
He was hung at 3 p. m., January 8, 1864, i" front of St. John's 
College where he had gone to school. During the terrible four 
years of the Civil War no braver soul was yielded up than that 
of David O. Dodd, the i7-_\ear-old boy of Saline County, Ark- 
ansas. 




SAINT JOHNS COLLEGE 



St. 3Jot)ns College 



St. Johns College was established at Little Rock by the Ma- 
sonic Fraternity of x\rkansas. Beginning in 1850 a movement 
initiated by Judge Elbert H. English was set on foot in Masonic 
circles to found a college for the education of the sons of 
Masons as well as to afford general education. At that time there 
were no colleges in Arkansas, and but very few schools. St. 
Johns College therefore was one of the pioneer institutions of 
the State. The building was opened as a military college in 
1859, with an able faculty of teachers from Mrginia — graduates 
of the Virginia colleges. They were Col. John Baker Thompson, 
of Staunton, president; ]\Iajor W. J. Bronaugh, of Richmond, 
and Major John B. Lewis, from Lexington. The college opened 
with about 60 cadets and had two prosperous sessions until, at 
the outbreak of the Civil War the institution was closed, and 
the professors and the cadets capable of bearing arms, enlisted in 
the Confederate army. The building was made use of as a hos- 
pital by the Confederates, and after the occupation of Little Rock 
by the Federal forces was likewise used by them until the close 
of the war. 

It was reopened as a college in 1868, under Col. Luke E. 
Barber; afterwards conducted by Col. O. C. Gray, Major R. 
H. Parham and others, until 1882, when the institution was 
closed as a college and the buildings and grounds were after- 
wards sold by the trustees, and with the proceeds the Masonic 
Temple, at Main and Fifth streets, was erected. 

The college in its career had among its pupils many men 
who are now prominent and leading men in Arkansas. In the 
latter years of its existence it was maintained as a co-educational 
institution. 

The college buildings were destroyed by fire and since that 
time the grounds have been built over by handsome residences. 



24 




WOODRUFF HOME 



aaJtUiam €. aajootiruff 



Was born near Bellport, Long Island, in the State of New 
York, December 24, 1795. His early education was limited; and 
in early }outh he was apprenticed to a printer in Brooklyn, and 
so became proficient in the business which he afterwards followed 
through the greater part of his life. In 1817 he set out to seek 
his fortunes in the far West. Buying a canoe he and a companion 
floated and paddled down the Ohio river to Louisville, Kentucky, 
from whence he wandered extensively through that State and 
Tennessee on foot, and with the aid of canoes and boats of 
various kinds, in search of some spot where a printing office and 
a newspaper, though of no great pretentions, might supply a long 
felt want. 

Finally ]\Ir. Woodruff^ made up his mind to settle at the 
Arkansas Post. The act of Congress creating rhe Territory of 
Arkansas, passed July 4, 1819, declared that that place should 
be "its seat of government until otherwise provided." It was 
nearly inaccessible. There was a mere bridle path running from 
Montgomery's Point, at the mouth of White River, a prospective 
city that has long since been dismantled, abandoned and prac- 
tically forgotten ; also a series of connecting roads and bridle 
paths extending from St. Louis by way of "the Post" to ]\Ionroe, 
Louisiana — then called "Monroe Court Plouse" — along which the 
mail was carried on horseback every four weeks. This was the 



2(3 



only post route in the territory. As there were few or no bridges, 
mails were frequently interrupted ; and promise of a mail at these 
distant intervals often proved an empty delusion. 

With a view to future activities Mr. Wondruff bought at 
Franklin, Tennessee, a small printing press and some type. Need- 
less to sav that the press was a hand-press, since no other kind 
of press was known or even dreamed of at that day : i)recisely the 
same kind of press that Franklin had been using in Philadelphia 
some years earlier, and of which he said that doubtless in that 
machine the art of printing had reached its highest possible stage 
of perfection. 

Mr. Woodruff caused his press and type to be transported 
on a wagon to the Cumberland River, and there, lashing two 
canoes together, and building on theni a platform on which he 
placed these promoters of a higher civilization, he launched his 
advent-n-ous craft, manned Ijy himself and an assistant, on the 
waters ; and after a long and weary voyage of three months on 
the Cumberland, [Mississippi and Arkansas rivers, these intrepid 
voyagers landed triumphantly at the Arkansas Post on the 30th 
of October, 1819. Could he have had a premonitory post-card, 
giving a representation of the physical appearance of the home 
that he had chosen, never, in all human probabilit}', would he have 
been seen walking the streets of the Arkansas Post ; but the art 
and mystery of photography had not been discovered in those 
days, and men and women took most things on trust in a manner 
that would now be considered extremely reckless. A glance at 
the new capital would have struck terror to most souls. It was 
at best a very small hamlet of a few hundred French and Indians 
for inhabitants, with a mere sprinkling of Americans, new arrivals 
and lovers of adventure. As young Woodruff" spoke neither the 
French nor the Indian languages, his social opportunities were 



27 



necessarily circumscribed. The houses of the new capital had 
been hastily constructed, consisting- mostly of shanties and log 
cabins ; the country around for many miles was as flat as a 
threshing floor, covered with a vast and almost unbroken forest 
and luxuriant vegetation that reminded one of tropical lands ; 
it was subject, too. to annual and semi-annual inundations that 
converted the village and the whole surrounding country into an 
inland sea, and which, subsiding, left a yellow deposit of mud 
not only on the wide expanse of uninhabited territory, but also 
on the floors of such habitations as had not been erected with 
wise forethought on piles of considerable elevation above the sur- 
face of the never too solid earth. Needless to say that for white 
men malarious diseases prevailed to an alarming extent ; the 
inhabitants being, of course, wholly ignorant of the connection 
subsisting between these maladies and the swarms of mosquitos 
that found here an earthly paradise blessed from time to time bv 
an increase of food products in the shape of human victims. On 
the whole hardly any place could be found better suited for the 
pu.rpose of curbing exuberant spirits, and the cultivation of 
serious thoughts. 

To most persons the fact that Air. Woodrufl:" willingly en- 
countered such discomfort and difficulties under such unpromising 
conditions would be enough to stamp him as an unpractical ad- 
venturer, with not a single chance of success in sight, or within 
speaking distance. Yet his judgment was sane and sound ; and 
lie possessed the fortitude and the abiding good sense of the 
true pioneer that brings forth great results out of scanty and 
unpromising materials. He knew that everything was there in 
the formative shape, and he trusted that American genius and 
enterprise would soon bring about new and happier conditions. 

The difficulties in the way of starting a newspaper amid such 
surroundings were enough to appall the stoutest heart. No house 



28 



could be found as a shelter and home for such an enterprise; 
and so logs had to be cut and drawn from the contiguous forest ; 
other materials necessary for the construction of a rude cabin 
had to be procured, and carpenters and other workmen were 
scarce. And yet, owing to the energy and activity of this young 
man, who not having been reared in the lap of luxury, was pre- 
pared to encounter privations and difficulties of all kinds, an 
unpretending building, in which ornamentation was severely ex- 
cluded, made its appearance ; type cases were set up, a pine table 
and a split-bottomed wooden chair did duty as an editorial 
sanctum, and the printing press, that marvel of human ingenuitv, 
the admiration of all beholders, was duly enthroned. Small fear 
of strikes had young \\^oo(lruff, since he was the sole typesetter, 
the sole proof-reader and compositor, the sole editor, reporter, 
foreign correspondent, errand boy, cashier, bookkeeper, corre- 
spondent and printer's devil. Xever was there such a complete 
concentration of resources. The newspaper had to start, and 
then to come out once a week in order to meet the demands of a 
critical and expectant public, and come out it did accordingly; 
the precocious child of much tribulation, and of seemingly extrav- 
agant hopes. The first number of the Arkansas Gazette made its 
appearance on Saturday, November 20, 1819. It had not a single 
subscriber, and the chance of selling more than half a dozen 
copies must have been extremely small. The sheet was about 
eighteen inches square; but the paper was good, the impression 
clear and distinct, the whole execution extremely creditable. 
As a candidate for long life its prospects were far from bright ; 
and yet that frail infant has survived the wreck of years in 
which many thousands of its fellows, many of them projected 
under the happiest auspices, have gone down in gloom and dis- 
appointment. 



29 



When the Legislature came to elect a printer for the Terri- 
tory in 1820. there was but small room for choice — Mr. \\'oo(lruff 
- — Billy WoodrutT as he was familiarl}- known in those days — was 
triumphantly elected. His official duties being- neither numerous 
nor absorbing did not interfere with the career of the Arkansas 
Gazette, which came out every Saturday morning witli unfailing 
regularity until the last issue at "The Post" of Xovember 24, 
1821, appeared, designated as A'olume III. Xo. 2. The rare files 
of these old newspapers are not void of interest. They show 
conclusively that ^Ir. Woodruff was perfect master of the art 
of printing as understood in that day. The typesetting, punctua- 
tion, proofreading, spacing, arrangement and press work, every- 
thing relating to mechanical execution, exhibited the greatest care 
and the highest skill. Strange to say, as a literary journal the 
Arkansas Gazette of that date was greatly superior to any present 
periodical publication an}where in the wide world. Mr. \\'ood- 
ruft' did not disclaim the muse then assiduously cultivated, and 
in those days apparently at the last gasp. Every number of the 
paper contained some brilliant gem, since become classic, fresh 
from the pen of Scott, Byron, W'oodworth, Shelley, Aloore or 
Campbell, that had been slowly wafted across a wide sea by vary- 
ing winds, and thence across a wide contnient by methods that to us 
us seem to be almost inconceivably slow. Indeed there were 
great men and inspired poets then. We boast of our progress in 
these days when the place thus occupied then is now usurped by 
stock reports and news of prize fights. X\ipoleon died while the 
Gazette was in course of publication at "The Post ;"' and it 
was not until lie had been sleeping under the willow at St. 
Helena for six months that the news could be announced in the 
Gazette by the vigilant watchman in the tower. The clock of 
time was running very slowly then, and an announcement that 



30 



in less than a century news would be flashed from that island 
round the world in a few hours would have been received with 
derision and incredulity. 

When the capital was removed to Little Rock Mr. Woodruff 
followed the course of empire, carrying his newspaper with him, 
without change of name; and in Little Rock it has been issued 
ever since, first as a weekly paper, and afterwards as a daily, 
except for a short interval during the Civil War: in all of which 
time it has maintained itself as one of the most influential news- 
papers in the State. At present it may be said to be established 
on a permanent basis. !\lr. Woodruff sold the Gazette in 1838, 
to one Edward Cole ; but probably for nonpayment of the pur- 
chase money it reverted to him in 1841, and he resumed his 
editorial functions; though not for long. In 1843, '"'^ ^'^^^^ again 
to Benjamin S. Borden. In 1846 he started a new paper in 
Little Rock called the "Arkansas Democrat." In 1850 he bought 
the Gazette, and the two papers were consolidated, and issued 
under the old name of the Arkansas Gazette ; a name which it 
still bears. In March, Mr. \\'oodruft' sold the paper to C. C. 
Danley, thus bringing his connection with the press to a close. 
He had long prior to that time established a successful real estate 
agency in Little Rock, a business, which, having greatly increased, 
had ended by occupying all his time. 

Mr. Woodruff' married .Miss Jane Eliza [Mills, of Louisville, 
Kentuck}', on the 14th of November. 1827. He has many descend- 
ants now living. Though he was no office-seeker yet he was 
L^nited States Pension Agent at Little Rock for many years, and 
was Treasurer of the State from L)ctober i. i83(), until Xovember 
20, 1838. He died at Little Rock, June 19, 1885 in the 90th year 
of his age. His widow survived him, dying in ]\Iarch 1887, 
at the age of 77 years. 



Mr. Woodruff and Chester Ashley from the time that they 
first met in 1821 until the death of the latter in 1848, while he was 
a member of the United States Senate, were bound together by 
the closest ties of a friendship that for devotion and fidelity might 
be fitly compared with any mentioned in ancient annals ; a friend- 
ship that does honor to both these highly distinguished pioneers 
of our State. 

Mr. Woodruff' was a small man, possessed of a wonderful 
amount of energy, industry and fortitude. His speech and manner 
were of almost Ouakerlike modesty and simplicity, respectful, 
quiet and unassuming, beneath which was a rich fund of good 
natured humor. Notwithstanding a life of immense labor and 
activity, mingled with not a little hardship, and an apparently 
frail constitution, he had almost continuous good health down to 
the close of his long life. In all his aff'airs he displayed an 
exactitude and precision of details that won for him the public 
confidence ; and down to extreme old age he was familiarly known 
as "Honest Billy Woodruff"." ^\l^atever he did was performed 
with the most scrupulous care. Mr. Hempstead, in his valuable 
history of Arkansas, to which the writer is greatly indebted in 
the preparation of this brief sketch, says of him : "From his 
unswerving integrity and perfect uprightness of character he 
possessed the esteem and respect of every '^ne." A hetter 
epitaph one could hardly wish. It naturally followed from what 
has been said that he impressed himself deeply on the develop- 
ment of the infant community in which his lot was cast. His 
judgment on public affairs was sure and sound, and by tempera- 
ment he was conservative ; so that many who otherwise might 
have been misled by temporary excitement habitually deferred 
to his opinions which had been deliberately fo: med, and which 
were expressed with a calmness and freedom from partizanship 
that bespoke the thoroughness of his convictions. His name is 
perpetuated in that of one of the counties of the State. 



32 




ARSENAL BUILDING 



33 



Cl)e ^r^enal Builtiing 



The building shown in ihustration is the tower building of 
the former United States Arsenal. It was put up by the govern- 
ment near the vear 1840, when Little Rock was a far west 
frontier point. It was the scene of many stirring events during 
the progress of the Civil War. At the outbreak of that great 
conflict it was garrisoned by an artillery company under Captain 
James Totten, and was taken possession of by the State au- 
thorities in February, 1861. Captain Totten retiring with his 
men. It was made use of for Confederate troops until the oc- 
cupancy of Little Rock by the L'nited States troops in 1863. 
and was thereafter made use of by them. In 1893 the govern- 
ment abandoned it as a military post and the citizens of Little 
Rock traded 1,000 acres of land on Big Rock to the governnieia 
for a post in exchange for the garrison grounds for a city park. 
In taking possession of it for that purpose all the officers' cjuarters, 
barracks and other buildings were removed, leaving the tower 
building alone standing for use as park keeper's lodge, club 
rooms, and public assemblies. 



34 




CONFEDERATE MONUMENT 



35 



Confederate flponument 



The Arkansas Confederate ^lonumcnt which stands in the 
grounds of the new State Capitol, was unveiled on the 3d of 
June, 1905. It was made in Paris, France, at the cost of ten 
thousand dollars, and is the work of the famous sculptor, F. W. 
Ruchstuhl. Five thousand dollars was collected hy the Veterans 
and Daughters, and live thousand was contributed by the State. 

One inscription upon this monument "The Defense of the 
Flag" is as follows : "Arkansas appreciated the valor and 
patriotism of her sons and commends their example to future 
eenerations." 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 646 112 8 4 



